Chaz Mostert claimed his seventh pole position of the season in the all-Hard tyre qualifying session that would determine the grid for the opening sprint race of the weekend.

The #6 Ford Falcon FG X proved to be the class of the field, finishing almost a quarter of a second clear of Prodrive Racing teammate and championship leader Mark Winterbottom. Mostert elected to sit out much of the session, only emerging in the final minutes of play to put down what were the three fastest laps of the entire session in a demoralising display for the rest of the field.

The session was heavily dominated by the Falcon FGX, which saw all five runners qualify inside the top-ten.

Rookie driver Andre Haimgartner made it a Prodrive 1-2-3 in the session, qualifying right behind in his Super Black Racing entry.

Scott McLaughlin put his GRM Volvo fourth-fastest, while rounding out the top ten were Craig Lowndes, Shane van Gisbergen, James Moffat, James Courtney, Scott Pye and David Reynolds.

Series veteran Jason Bright will start at the rear of the field, throwing his BOC Holden off-track at Turn 3 on his hot lap.

The second qualifying session – run on the Soft Dunlop tyre – was a much more closely-fought affair, with Craig Lowndes just pipping Mark Winterbottom and Chaz Mostert to claim the 41st pole position of his career.

Lowndes opted for a single run on new tyres, posting a 1:09.3102 to claim top spot by just 0.01 seconds.

The young Kiwi finished ahead of Nissan’s Todd Kelly and Prodrive’s David Reynolds, who closed out the third row of the grid.

It was a good session for the Erebus Motorsport team, which had both of its Mercedes AMG E63s in the top ten for the first time this season; Ash Walsh qualified a career-best seventh-fastest and teammate Will Davison was ninth-quickest – the pair sandwiched reigning champion Jamie Whincup.